1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a sanitary device for cats, and more particularly, a cat toilet with automatic cleaning and replenishment of kitty litter.
2. Description of Related Art
All cat toilets that have been commercially available for years have had to be cleaned by hand. At least once or twice a day, the kitty litter that has been soiled with fecal material has to be tossed out entirely or the fecal materials must be removed individually by means of a specially designed shovel, which is also commercially available.
The resulting odor, which appears despite the odor-inhibiting kitty litter, should be viewed as a disadvantage of that cat toilet.
A cat toilet with automatic cleaning and replenishment has been disclosed in German P 39 18 121.9-23, and its corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,575. A more detailed discussion of this is, however, not necessary because both cleaning, as well as replenishment, are solved with means other than those described therein.
Other cat toilets that are self-cleaning are disclosed in DE-GM 89 05 314, as well as in DE-GM 84 19 845. The disadvantages of those cat toilets are explained in P 39 18 121.9-23.
Because it does not matter to a cat if it is left alone at home for a temporary period of time, the number of pet cats in the households of working people has increased enormously in the past few years. Given this circumstance, and recognizing the cleanliness of cats, if cats are left alone for long periods of time, there exists the danger that a cat, if it does not consider its toilet to be clean enough, will do its "business" in another place in the home that the cat considers suitable for such purposes.